


Lights Will Guide You Home

by Cocopops1995



Series: Hurt Me With Your Words [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, My pride and joy, Reunions, Ryou as in Shiro's twin, Siblings, twinganes, voltronwhumpweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 22:12:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: Ryou and Shiro are finally reunited. It all gets very emotional.





	Lights Will Guide You Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kitsune13tamlin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitsune13tamlin/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Two Minutes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13655505) by [kitsune13tamlin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitsune13tamlin/pseuds/kitsune13tamlin). 



> A couple of important notes before reading this:
> 
> First: headspacedad (kitsune13tamlin) was so kind as to let me write this as a direct continuation of her Ryou fics. I strongly suggest reading them before reading this or you won't know what's going on. And also because they're absolutely amazing. They're in the story this fic is inspired by, and it's follow up: [I See A Mirror](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13655778/chapters/31364808) which this fic is a direct continuation of.  
> Second: I strongly recommend that you listen to "Fix You" by Coldplay while reading this fic in order to get the full emotional effect.

When Shiro tried to pull away he was stopped short by the noise that escaped his twin’s throat. It was a pained, desperate sound. A sort of a sob-whine that made Shiro feel like he was being stabbed right in the heart. Immediately, he tightened his hold on his brother. He hushed Ryou and assured him that it was alright. It was okay. He wasn’t going anywhere.

“I just needed to reach my helmet.” Shiro explained, he didn’t want to release his grip on his brother either, but it was necessary. “It’s right over there, I don’t even need to move to reach it. I just need to tell the others that they were okay.”

For a moment Ryou didn’t respond, and Shiro wondered if Ryou had even heard what he’d said. But then Ryou let out a shuddering breath and nodded against Shiro’s chest

Shiro slowly pulled away again to reach for his helmet, and in the process got a look at Ryou’s face. He hadn’t had a chance to get a good look at it before Ryou threw himself into Shiro’s arms. He wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted him. As he took in the swollen-shut left eye, the heavy bruising surrounding it, and the blood that dribbled from Ryou’s lips, a wave of rage rose up in Shiro’s chest. Those monsters had hurt his brother. He was going to turn his lion around and blast every one of them to smithereens for this. If they wanted the Champion, they would f-

His thoughts were cut off by Ryou’s voice, small, and unsure, as he whispered a single word: “Taka?”

Shiro closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself, and shook his head to clear it. His rage must have been showing on his face, and Ryou had always been able to read him like a book. He fought for a moment to school his expression before opening his eyes again.

Ryou was staring back at him with the most horrified expression. Shiro felt his stomach drop and immediately opened his mouth to apologise. But then Ryou’s dirty, bloodied hand was reaching for his face, and his shaking fingers were lightly tracing the scar across Shiro’s nose.

It was enough to almost send Shiro into a flashback -. His own hand, dirty and bloodied, reaching up to feel the new scar on his face - but Black’s presence in his mind reached out and pulled him back from the edge of the rabbit’s hole. Shiro blinked and he was back in the Black Lion’s cockpit. Ryou was in his arms, and he looked pissed.

“Who did this?” Ryou asked, his voice utterly calm and steady. A stark contrast to the scared whisper that had left his lips a few moments before.

Shiro flinched at the question. He reached up and pulled Ryou’s hand away from his face and only shook his head in reply. There was absolutely no way he could even try to answer that question right now. Instead he went back to reaching for his helmet. Once he had it, he put it on long enough to assure the others that both he and Ryou were okay and that Black was taking them straight back to the Castle. The others informed him the planet they had just rescued Ryou from had sent out fighter ships in retaliation, but they assured him that they would take care of it.

Once that was taken care of, he turned his attention back to Ryou, who still looked like he wanted to punch someone. Honestly, Shiro still wanted to punch someone too, but his concern for Ryou was enough to overwhelm that for now. So he distracted them both by asking Ryou where else he was hurt.

Ryou’s expression melted into one Shiro knew all too well. It was same expression Ryou always got when he’d been in a fight and didn’t want to tell Shiro where he was hurt; because he knew that Shiro would find whoever had hurt him and beat their asses into a pulp.

Shiro smirked and reminded his brother that it wasn’t exactly like he could go hunting anyone right now. Secretly, though, he took immense pleasure from the knowledge that his team was currently showing those assholes exactly what happened when they messed with anyone they cared about. Keith, at the very least, would be absolutely merciless.

Ryou was silent for a moment, obviously seeing right through Shiro’s carefully constructed poker face. Finally, Ryou sighed and told Shiro about the ribs on his left side that he was reasonably certain were broken, the possible breaks in his foot on the same side, and the pins and needles that now felt more like knives and hot poker sticks in the same leg from his knee down.

Shiro shook his head, the barely contained rage threatening to spill over, as he reached for his lion’s first aid kit just behind Ryou, and fished out the pain meds that basically doubled as alien ibuprofen. It was the best he could do until they could get Ryou into a healing pod. Shiro watched as Ryou swallowed the pills dry and then Shiro pulled his twin back into a tight embrace, this time mindful of Ryou’s injured ribs.

Ryou wrapped his arms tightly around Shiro in return and for a moment they were silent. Then:

“Taka, are we really in a giant, flying cat?”

Shiro chuckled, “Technically it’s a lion, but yeah.”

“Oh. Okay.”

There was another beat of silence before Ryou spoke again, his voice wavering, “I thought you were dead.”

Shiro’s heart clenched at the naked pain in his twin’s voice, “I know. I’m sorry.”

Ryou’s breath hitched and his shoulders began shaking as he began crying once again.  
Shiro tried to say something, anything, to comfort Ryou, but he couldn’t speak past the sudden lump in his throat. So instead he buried his face in his brother’s hair and cried too.

 

Once the Black Lion settled in it’s hangar, the twins sat for a few minutes, gathering their composure. By the time Black’s mouth finally opened to allow them out, Coran was waiting for them with a stretcher. Ryou seemed weary of him at first, but Shiro was quick to assure him that Coran was a friend.

Ryou sat down on the stretcher, but still refused to let go of Shiro, so they ended up sitting side by side on the stretcher. Shiro felt a little silly, being pushed around on a floating stretcher when he was perfectly capable of walking, but he wasn’t willing to force Ryou to let go if he didn’t want to. Besides, Coran didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to be more amused by Ryou’s reaction to the floating stretcher.

Ryou was asking all sorts of questions about how it worked and Shiro couldn’t help but smile. It’s just so Ryou and Shiro couldn’t put into words how relieved he was that fighting in that arena hadn’t squashed Ryou’s core personality.

Coran happily answered all of Ryou’s questions as he pushed them into the healing pod room and began preparing a healing pod.

Once the pod was ready, Shiro squeezed his brother tightly from the side for a moment and then quietly told him: “We’re going to have to let go now.”

Ryou didn’t look at all happy about that, and really, Shiro wasn’t either. But it was important, so he pressed on.

“Just for a little while.” he assured Ryou, “And when you wake up, you’ll be good as new, and I’ll be right here.”

Ryou was quiet for a moment more, as he eyed the healing pod with thinly veiled suspicion.

Finally, he swallowed heavily and said: “Promise?”

The childish request was small and scared and it broke Shiro’s heart.

Shiro leaned over and pressed a kiss onto Ryou’s forehead before fervently answering: “I promise.”

Ryou took a deep breath and nodded. He allowed Shiro and Coran to help him out of the ratty clothes he had on and into the white healing suit. Shiro was immensely grateful that he had his armour on, which hid his prosthetic arm. He would have to reveal it to Ryou soon, but now he didn’t have the energy for it, and he was sure that Ryou didn’t either.

Once they were done helping him change, Shiro and Coran helped Ryou into the pod. As Shiro watched his twin succumb to the pod’s healing effects, he felt a hole in his chest being partially filled.

That hole filled out completely two days later when Ryou stepped out of the pod again, healthy and almost exactly as Shiro remembered him. And for the first time in an inconceivably long time, as his twin stepped into his waiting arms, Shiro felt as close to complete as he thought he ever would get.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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